FRONTIERS OF ZOOLOGYDale A. Drinnon has been a researcher in the field of Cryptozoology for the past 30+ years and has corresponded with Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson. He has a degree in Anthropology from Indiana University and is a freelance artist and writer. Motto: "I would rather be right and entirely alone than wrong in the company with all the rest of the world"--Ambroise Pare', "the father of modern surgery", in his refutation of fake unicorn horns.

Argentina: Odd Creature Seen in Entre Rios

During the course of this week,
numerous persons claimed having seen lights in the night skies and unidentified
flying objects overhead in broad daylight. The most intriguing fact, however, is
the story told by an inspector for the municipal natural resources office, who
encountered a strange creature on the premises of the municipal parking
lot.

In recent weeks, the department of Victoria has become an
unprecedented area for sightings. On a daily basis, residents from various
points of the communal lands and the rural areas have described how and why they
saw an intense light in the sky, or objects that suddenly vanish as though by
magic.

In many of these sightings, people have managed to use their
cellphones to take photos. But on Wednesday, the repercussions of these
unidentified flying object sightings were minimized by public opinion when an
employee of the office of municipal natural resources claimed having seen a
strange creature behind the campgrounds as he conducted a routine
drive-around.

Faced with this, UFO researcher Silvia Pérez Simondini, startled by the news,
stated: "If something was missing in Victoria, it was something that all
researchers dream about, and it has just occurred. One always thinks that these
things happen to others, in other countries, and that we will never have the
possibility of encountering something like what just happened. Now our work is
redoubled - we not only have to chase after the lights, appear in this locality
year after year. Now we're faced with another type of research."

"On 10
December 2010, while listening to the Caminando program (102.1 FM) I heard my
name being mentioned, and they were calling me about something very strange that
was taking place. I went to the station immediately, in the understanding that
it was just that important. Upon arriving at the station, they told me the story
quickly, adding that the percipient was not only credible - he was frightened
and wanted to tell me what occurred on the evening of Wednesday, December
8."

"They showed me a drawing made by the father (an excellent
illustrator) and I was astoudned, since it is the same figure that is currently
been seen in many countries. They gave me his phone number to arrange an
interview. I visited at 16:30 hrs. and he told me his experience. He only asked
me not to show his face, since he is a natural resources inspector. Could I
photograph him from the back, he asked, and he would tell me everything. And so
we did. And you can hear his story. There is a small mistake - I say its the
sixteenth, and it was in fact the tenth of December. I am clarifying this to
avoid confusion."

Monday, December 06, 2010

Argentina: Family Faces the Dreaded Chupacabras

This is among the most traumatic and complex episodes of
UFOlogy in recent times, and it took place in the Pampean locale of Santa Rosa
on a 70 hectare field belonging to a cattle ranching family. One afternoon, the
Giménez family witnessed strange movements and upon looking closely, the came
face to face for ten seconds with a strange being they identified as the
infamous “Chupacabras” as it fled the area after mutilating a cow.

In an
interview with Expedientes Secretos,
Andrea Perez Simondini of the VisionOVNI group remarked that “the La Pampa
episode is among the most complex that we have had to investigate, given the
fact that it contains many elements that link the phenomenology popularly
associated with the Chupacabras to everything concerning the UFO
phenomenon.”

Pérez Simondini also provided an important clue by
highlighting that “in the La Pampa case, as in many others, there are direct
links with the last study carried out in the Misiones incident, with the mass
mutilation of ten sheep.”

A Detailed
Report

Regarding the La Pampa event, Simondini recently published
a document written by the protagonists themselves – the Giménez couple – making
evident yet again the need for investigating these cases in depth. “We are
Alberto and Alicia, and we are writing to tell you about our somewhat startling
experience, involving a close encounter with the alleged Chupacabras,” said the
couple in the document about the 2008 incident.

“We are from Santa Rosa,
La Pampa Province, west of Buenos Aires Province. We live in a small seventy
hectare field where we keep 30 cows and general livestock. Our country has
recently suffered the strange phenomenon of cattle mutilations, attributed in
great measure to this bizarre being,” stated the protagonists.

They
explained: “Our cow pasture is approximately two kilometers away from our home.
We tend to release them from their pens at eight in the morning, a task carried
out by our three farmhands, and we bring them back ourselves in the afternoon,
aided by our eldest son.

Among the
Trees

Winter was just starting when the events occurred, and the
couple was getting ready to bring in the cows around five o’clock in the
afternoon. At that moment, Alberto saw three of his cows running some 200 meters
from the stables. “This surprised us, because the cows have learned their daily
routine. It should be noted that the pasture is located near a very dense patch
of vegetation. This prompted us to jump into our pickup truck and head toward
them in a hurry, feeling concerned.”

“The closer we got, the more we were
alarmed as the cows were scattered. Our son jumped out of the pickup to round up
the cattle, when were struck by a pervasive and disagreeable smell. We tried
find out the source of the smell, and after walking 300 meters into the
wilderness, we found the mutilated carcass of a cow missing its internal organs
and genitals,” they said in the document.

According to the story “there
was no trace of blood, which was surprising.” But that wasn’t all, because after
combing the area for 10 minutes, Alicia heard strange noises from the pasture
near the brush. He thought it was someone trying to sneak away. “We approached
thinking we’d find a cattle rustler or an animal responsible for the cow’s
death. We were scant meters away when we saw a being with the Chupacabras’s
characteristics. We could see it for approximately 10 seconds, as it vanished
into the trees,” they stated.

Simondini explained about the case that “it
is very serious, confirmed even further by interviews to the family unit and
with field work performed in the area.” She added: “the episode can be added to
a long chain of events of similar characteristics. The latest was in Misiones,
with the mutilated sheep that are still under study.”An Uncommon Entity

Tales of
encounters with the chupacabras are uncommon. In general, cases become known
when mutilated animals are found. For this reason, the Gimenez family’s report
in La Pampa is special. “The witnesses had the chance to run across the
chupacabras, defining it as a 2-meter tall being with abundant fur, a face
similar to that of a dog, claws, and great agility when it comes to leaping or
climbing.” Simondini seeks “the close relationship between these cases and the
UFO phenomenon, including events where the creature’s manifestations are tied to
apparitions of lights.”

Andrea Perez Simondini is one of the country’s
best-known researchers. Both she and her mother, Silvia Simondini of the
VisionOVNI team, carry out a number of studies on cattle mutilation cases and
their link to the UFO phenomenon. With regard to the La Pampa incident, and the
Gimenez family’s story, she remarks that “mutilations occur all the time,
throughout the country,” explaining that “not only the discoveries are involved:
there are strange episodes before and after the animal attacks.”

“For
example, we’ve recorded episodes of cattle attacks which also left hens in the
area sterile, unable to lay eggs, within the framework of biological
consequences that probably share the same origin,” notes Simondini. She also
commented about the case involving “a rooster in Misiones that had to be put
down in the area where the mass sheep mutilation occurred, due to its abrupt
change of behavior.”

The La Pampa incident is associated with many
episodes. In the locality of Colonia Elia in Entre Rios, in 2004, the creature
was also seen by witness, in this case the son of the owners of an industrial
chicken farm. He fired four times at the entity, but never managed to wound it.
We carried out in-depth field work in the area, and we even found hairs in a
trap that the family had placed to catch the entity.” As part of the report
created around the event, the protagonist made a drawing which highlighted the
“visitor’s” main characteristics.(Translation (c) 2010 Scott Corrales, IHU.
Special thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planet UFO)posted by Inexplicata at 11:37
AMhttp://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html

Monday, December 13, 2010

Spain: Cryptozoology Meets Movie Making

Source: Cryptozoologos.blogspot.comDate: 13
December 2010

Spain: Basajaun, the
Motion PictureBy Javier
Resines

Basajaun, the Basque Lord of the Forest, is featured in a
new short-subject film. Creator Sergio Morillo Echavarri is currently involved
in the post-production phase of Basajaun y las
lindes de los bosques (Basajaun and the borders of the forests), his
first motion picture project.

In order to narrate the story of this
eldritch creature, halfway between cryptozoology and legend, Morillo has chosen
three dimensional special effects and characters to be merged with the presence
of human actors. Exteriors were shot in Urbasa, and the chromakey technique has
been employed for interiors - actors film their scenes before a green screen
which can later be worked upon digitally.

The plot, according to the
director, “tells the story of how this mythological creature refuses his fate,
which is to vanish, and will find himself swept into confrontations with humans,
the miscreants who chop and destroy without any concern for the woods loves and
protects, and that are his home.”

The short-subject film, which received
15,000 euros in funding from the government of Navarre through the Instituto Navarro de las Artes Audiovisuales y la
Cinematografía (INAAC) was presented at the Festival Internacional de Cortometrajes de Temática
Social de Berriozar (FICBE) on October 16, 2010.

A three-minute
demo on the composition of some of the film’s scenes was presented, and it can
be seen at http://criptozoologos.blogspot.com/

We
would like to congratulate Sergio Morillo for having successfully carried out
his project and for having chosen such an interesting subject as the cornerstone
of his work. Anyone interested can follow the day-to-day progress on Basajaun y
las lindes de los bosques on Facebook, where the director narrates all current
events regarding the film.

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

Dr Jeffrey Meldrum recently published a paper advancing the idea that some of the presumed fossil types of humans other than modern man could have survived up until more modern times and could be connected to modern reports of Bigfoot and the like. His paper included two examples of what look to be Neanderthal types from Mongolia and China in the vicinity of 10000 to 20000 BC, at the end of the Ice Age and much later than the usually-accepted date for the last surviving Neanderthals (There are at least two such late-Neanderthal sites in Europe to my knowledge but Meldrum did not mention them) His description of the specimen illustrated below is as follows:

A remarkably complete specimen of a pre-modern hominin, displaying archaic features of the skull and skeleton, was recovered from the site of Lishu, just outside Beijing, China, with a preliminary date of 12000 to 20000 years ago.(Lu, Personal communication) It is on display at the Peking University

I do also have a fairly good translation for the publication on the Mongolian example, potentially to be connected to the reports of the Almas in that region

The famous paleoanthropologistYves Coppens and colleagues discovered skeletal remains of Homo sapiens archaic in northern Mongolia. You appear to have similarities with Neanderthals , Chinese Homo erectus and Archaic Homo sapiens.

These remains are unmatched in the region, having never had human fossil discovered in the area.

The remains were discovered in 2006 in northeastern Mongolia where a company was looking for gold in the cave of Salkhit. The workers found them 6 meters underground in a pit. Cranial remains are very fragmentary but well preserved: a full frontal bone and two parietal incomplete.

Could not be dated with certainty yet, but it was estimated at a Late Pleistocene date, that is between 12,6 thousand and 10 thousand years. The dating was based indirectly about rhinos associated with human remains.

Despite having many features Neanderthals , the remains were not associated with that species, but recently discovered Neanderthals in Siberia. But the authors do believe that there might be some relationship.

"The scientific community," say the authors in the study, "considers the Neanderthals as a European group rather than Asia, with relatively recent settlements in Asia. Although based on the dating of fossils, this assumption should be tempered and should take more account of the discoveries in Teshik Tash, Uzbekistan, and Okladnikov and Denisova, southeastern Siberia. "

And is that the show remains a mosaic of features. The features Neanderthals who are at residues "are located at the bottom of the frontal bone, in the nasal region and the orbital".

"Multidimensional Analysis clearly differentiate Salkhit skull fossils of [modern]Homo sapiens from the Far East, "the authors conclude. In contrast, comparisons show similarities with archaic groups composed of Neanderthals , Chinese Homo erectus and archaic Homo sapiens both the West and the Far East. Unfortunately, the incompleteness of the fossil does not allow a comparison more feaciente. For this reason, we attribute cautiously Salkhit the remains of an archaic Homo sapiens. "

The term "Archaic Homo sapiens" can be used to include Neanderthals and the broader category of other fossils like them, including the "Rhodesian man" and "Heidelberg man." The authors of this study seem to consider Neanderthals entirely European and because of that they use the broader classification for these remains.

This is one of my postings that kept disappearing when I was trying to post it. I have sent the request to author David Claer asking for permission to reprint these articles because our researches have tended to coincide and reinforce each other in other areas wheret overlap. I am going on ahead and reprinting here because I consider the evidence crucial in discussing the matter and because I am not only giving him all credit, I am also not gaining any financial profit by the reprinting and nor is anyone else. The H. heidelbergensis theory has incidentally been a strong contender since the 1990s in the literature at the time: but the feeling all along has been that it was a subspecies of Homo sapiens and the direct ancestor of the Neanderthals.

"Baby" Bigfoot Evidence- Cast Prints from a Sasquatch Toddler

Sasquatch Family Members Leave Hand- and Footprints in Texas Clay

The vast ecosystem formed by the Red River watershed on the borders of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana affords a habitat comprised of many micro-climates with an incredible diversity and richness of plant and animal life. In many of the deep ravines where the creeks and waterways have cut through the the limestone cap rock, the vegetation has a nearly tropical aspect. Towering, ancient cypress trees form a canopy above the underbrush and thick hanging vines. These ravines are like a primordial oasis, seldom traversed by humans. Often in remote wildernesses, surrounded by thousands of acres of temperate woodlands and meadows. The ravines are a favored living quarters for the Sasquatch or "Bigfoot"
From one of these ravines, a very significant group of footprints of a "Baby Bigfoot" were cast in plaster, along with a hand- and footprints from a more mature Sasquatch, most likely the juvenile's older sibling or mother. The prints, pressed into the fine clay of the creek bed are rare specimens, since not only are they from a rarely documented young juvenile, but the casts also retain detailed anatomical features that are not generally preserved in other types of soil.
A record of this type of evidence is necessary for a more in-depth understanding of these beings, who are the closest living relatives of humans, as current, in-depth DNA results are expected to reveal. The popular misconception of the Sasquatch is one of a savage "monster"- a giant ape with limited intelligence, motivated by sheer instinct. The Sasquatch are far more complex, intelligent and social creatures, with a family structure and long-term relationships within their extended families and network of friends- which in very rare instances can include humans.
[The photographs and diagrams included with this article (at upper right) can be selected by clicking on the numbers, and then enlarged by clicking on the thumbnail image that is displayed. Note that the images are copyrighted and cannot be legally copied or reproduced in print or on the internet without express permission of the author. Press release photos for linking to the article are available upon request.]
The print casts are from a private collection, which I was given permission to examine and photograph. A few years prior to examining these casts, I had independently investigated the area where they were cast, and found abundant evidence of the Sasquatch in this region, as well as had confirmation by sightings. The owner of this collection and I had no previous knowledge of each other's activities and research.
The cast print of the "baby" is most likely from a juvenile that would be equivalent to a human "toddler" a young Sasquatch who has just begun to walk upright. This individual would be larger in stature than a human of similar relative maturity, standing about 3 and a half feet tall. The accompanying footprints are of an individual, most likely female, probably about 6 foot tall, small for an adult female and possibly indicating an older sibling.
The footprints have several distinguishing anatomical characteristics that differentiate them from human footprints. The most marked feature is the clearly delineated depression in the mid-foot on the outside edge opposite the arch. In a human foot, the bone structure in this area is rigid, and forms a continuous ridge from the ball of the foot to the heel. In the Sasquatch, the bone-joints and ligaments are flexible in the mid-tarsal region, which is evidenced in the resulting depression in the footprints. The mid-tarsal "break" as it is often referred to, enables the Sasquatch or Bigfoot to flex the foot and walk on the fore-foot.
The ability to walk and run on the forefoot is an adaptation that affords increased mechanical leverage to the stride of the Sasquatch. In other prints that I have examined, as well as these, there are distinctly visible elements in the configuration of bone structure, tendons and musculature of the foot that reveal the bio-mechanical mechanism operating in the Sasquatch foot. (For more, related information, refer to the links to articles listed in the Resources section below.)
The Sasquatch trait of displacing the weight to the forefoot results in other notable configurations in the bone structure of the foot. The foot of the Sasquatch is significantly broader across the ball of the foot in comparison to human proportions. Both of the cast footprints show not only the broad forefoot, but areas where the bone joints, the overlaying tissue pads and the calloused skin itself combine to form enlarged prominences in the prints.

On the outside edge of the foot, in the bones supporting the "little" toe, (the fifth metatarsal, just above the mid-tarsal flexion) there is an enlarged bone prominence, thickened tissue pad, and thickly calloused skin. (Sasquatch also have an enlarged os perenium - a small oviod bone that only about 20% of modern humans possess, at the posterior end of the fifth metatarsal. It functions as a stress- and pressure-bearing reinforcement to the tendon.)
On the opposite side of the forefoot, in the bones supporting the "big" toe, there is also an enlarged bone prominence, tissue pad and calloused area. (In this location, there are also two small ovoid bones, present in both humans and in the Sasquatch- the sesamoid bones-, which are connected only by tendons to the big toe. These bones are proportionately much larger in the foot of the Sasquatch- evidence of the increased weight distribution to the forefoot during ambulation.)
Another element in the developmental anatomy of the Sasquatch that can be deduced from these prints in comparison to those of adults, is that the tapering profile of the foot from ball to heel indicates a progression to increased bipedalism from juvenile to adult. In the toddler, the heel is smaller and narrower, indicating more of a reliance on quadrupedal locomotion- crawling or scampering on four limbs. In fact, in large adult males, the bones of the heels (calcaneus) become very robust. In examining both cast and actual footprints in the field, I have noted there there is a discernible difference between male and female Sasquatch footprints. As with humans, Sasquatch are dimorphic- that is, males and females are different in general size and shape. Both the hands and feet of a female Sasquatch are more slender, or narrower in proportion of width to length.
In the cast prints of the "Baby Bigfoot" there are also rarely documented fine anatomical details that mitigate against fraudulence. In the cast print picture above, there are clearly defined pressure ridges, mainly across the forefoot. These ridges are basically a rumpling of the outer layers of tissue and skin on the sole of the foot, formed as the foot flexes. In a series of actual footprints, the pressure ridges will change in size, shape and number, whereas in hoaxed prints, there are either no pressure ridges, or they remain identical from print to print. ( In fact in most prints, the soil consistency does not retain impressions of the pressure ridges.)
A very significant element in this series of prints are the finely detailed dermal ridge patterns. Dermal ridges, also referred to as "friction" ridges, are the pattern of whorls or spiraling ridges that form the familiar "fingerprint" signature on hands and correspondingly, on toes of both humans and Sasquatch. ( In this case the dermal ridges pictured are from the print series of the more mature Sasquatch.) In the cast prints that I examined that have distinct dermal ridge patterns, the patterns have a very close correlation to human dermal ridge patterns, as seen in the pictured comparisons.
One of the cast prints, pictured above is an even rarer specimen- it is the hand print from a sub-adult Sasquatch, possibly from the same individual that left the larger of the two footprints. The hand-print has many of the same characteristics as those seen in the cast hand-print of a much larger adult male. (Refer to the link in the resources section below for the article with that analysis.) The Sasquatch hand is typically broader in proportion to that of a human, and the individual bones are both flatter and straighter compared to a human's. The thumb is more widely offset. The main muscle groups in the hand are larger and more robust proportionately, as well. The palm of the hand is flatter, with typically thick, callused skin.
In concluding this article, I would like to take the opportunity to comment on the nature of the Sasquatch. Evidence such as these footprints, as well as field observation by many researchers, indicate they they are beings with an emotional and intellectual capacity very close to those of human beings. They have close-knit families that love, nurture and care for their young. They have the ability to speak and converse, not only with each other, but also with humans. They are long-lived and well traveled throughout wilderness areas and traditional territories that are now being encroached upon by humankind. In light of these revelations, I am an advocate of the no-kill policy in regards to the Sasquatch or Bigfoot. The slaughter of one of these beings, with this type of fore-knowledge, would be an unconscionable act. The Sasquatch are very likely in the lineage ancestral to modern humans, and the killing of one, while aware of their true nature, would be ethically equivalent to the killing of one of our own fellow humans. [I emphatically agree-DD]

I found a nice 8 or 9 inch print 4 years ago at Salt Fork State Park in Ohio. Wasn't sure if it was human or not. I thought about casting it but didn't. I did take about 6 pictures of it. I had Dr. Esteban Sarmiento look at the pics and he ...thought it could be a juvy Squatch print. There are plenty of adult print cast in the 13 inch and up size. We need more examples of juvenile Squatch prints for study and comparison. I do have 4 castings of 9 inch prints I found. Sarmiento and Meldrum both looked at these and said they were human. I don't think they are because of all the other evidence and circumstances surrounding them.

Dale DrinnonThat sounds like a good range of track sizes. And I think there are others that have said that some of the tracks start out as more human-like when small and young but less human-like as large and adult

When Dr Meldrum looked at my 4 print cast and said they were human he did say that there was a possibility they were juvy Squatch prints and that maybe they change in time as the Squatch matures. He said we don't know right now. He said the... same thing about some castings made by Jaime Avalos on one of the Monster Quest episodes featuring Jaime. This is why there is a need for more juvy Squatch print castings and pics. I look at and study every picture and casting that are posted of alleged juvy Squatch prints

Dale DrinnonI'm throwing my blog together now. Mind if I quote you on that?

Bigfoot Handprint Discovered In Texas

Photographs and Comprehensive Analysis of the Bigfoot or Sasquatch Hand from Plaster Cast

[All original work, photographs and drawings are copyrighted by David Claerr: I shall add one of my own additionally at the end because it amplifies the others in a different way]

Dale D's addition: comparison of a Texas Bigfoot handprint to a Neanderthal hand skeleton, which appears to have much the same bony structure. I would imagine the Texas Bigfoot to be in the range of 7-7 1/2 feet tall by this comparison.

In the dense woodlands of northeast Texas, near the town of Paris, there have been many recent reports of sightings of large, hairy, creatures that match descriptions of Bigfoot or the Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest. Evidence of the creature's presence has been accumulating, including a few excellent plaster casts of its footprints. However, distinct hand-prints from any region are relatively rare, and the subject of this article is one of the best cast hand-prints on record to date. (Note that the images and diagrams can also be viewed in a convenient slide-show format by clicking on this link.)
The cast hand-print is from a collection made by the late Mike Sells, who lived in the Paris area. (Mike passed away in 2008). I was given permission to closely examine and photograph the casts when they were on display at the first annual Bigfoot Festival in Lamar, Point, Texas on Nov. 7th, 2009. The collection was on loan from Mike's wife, Sandy, and it included several cast footprints and hand-prints, ranging from big males to females and small juveniles. Mike was an ardent outdoorsman who discovered evidence of the creatures on numerous occasions while exploring the woodlands, and while searching for Native American artifacts.
The impression of the hand-print was made in sandy soil. The granular sand did not pick up fine detail, such as dermal ridges or finger-print whorls. However, the general contours of the hand, including the creases in the palm (also referred to as "life lines" in palmistry) are fairly distinct. Embedded in the cast is a peach pit.(The area around Paris is noted for its peach orchards, and there are many individual trees growing wild.) The pit is about 1 & 1/4 inches long, so it can be used as a scale.
The hand-print is about 12 & 1/2 inches long, which would indicate a creature about 9 to 10 feet tall, based on the ratios used for humans [In Bigfoot the hands and feet are remarked upon as being proportionately outsized-DD].Using the biometric calculations used for estimating human weight, the creature would weigh from 500-600 pounds if the body type was within the "normal" range, and would likely be considerably heavier, assuming a very heavy-boned and muscular being.
Despite the obvious similarity to a human hand, the cast print shows some notable differences in its configuration. First is the enormous size, which is nearly double the length of an average human hand, with a surface area about three times the size of a human's. The bone structure, which can be traced by the prominences or bulges at the joints, indicates bones which are more massive and blocky, with less curvature along the length than those of a human.
The palm is larger in proportion to the fingers than that of a human, and has elongated metacarpal bones connected to the little finger and "ring" finger, which make the palm considerably more square than a human hand. The little and ring fingers are also proportionately longer and thicker than a human's. The thumb is splayed at a larger angle and is also comparatively more robust than that of a human. The massive bone structure indicates a creature with tremendous grasping power.
The relative flatness of the palm, and the uniformity of the impression indicate thick, callused skin on the palm and fingers, due to frequent, habitual contact with rough surfaces and the lifting of heavy objects. There is a notably robust development evident in the main muscles of the hand, namely the pollicis group along the metacarpal of the thumb, and the digiti minimi group along the metacarpal of the little finger. These muscles are proportionally larger and wider by comparison to a human hand. The bio-mechanical configuration of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch hand would enable it to apply enormous pressure and torque on any object in its grasp.
The dimensions of the cast Bigfoot hand-print indicate an individual whose size almost exactly matches that indicated by another specimen that I examined, an excellent cast Bigfoot footprint from the Paris area. The footprint, impressed into soft clay, has fine detail of dermal ridges, stress creases, and skin-folds at the joints as well as other anatomical features. The analytical article, photographs and diagrams can be found at this link.
As a related note of interest, Mike Sells was featured in the movie "Bigfoot Lives" produced by Searching For Bigfoot Inc. "Bigfoot Lives" chronicles the research efforts of the SFBI team, headed by the renowned Tom Biscardi. The Searching for Bigfoot website link can be found listed in the Resources section below. [Unfortunately Tom Biscardi has subsequently become discredited-which does not reflect upon Mike Sells, David Claerr or anybody else in the business-DD]
Resources:
Slide Show of Cast Hand-print with Bone Structure Analysis : http://www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/58844/bigfoot_handprint_discovered_in_texas.html?cat=58
Slide Show of Cast Footprint with Analysis: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/712585/i_analyzed_bigfoots_footprint_a_study.html?cat=70
Slide Show with Fine Details in Closeup from Cast Footpprint: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2243755/texas_bigfoot_cast_print_examination_pg2.html?cat=58
Searching for Bigfoot Website: http://www.searchingforbigfoot.com/

-In this case although I think it is a perfectly legitimate cast, I feel the footprint shows a great deal of skidding at the heel and a curling of the toes which appear shorter and bunched up as a consequence.Note the oddly turned-out little toe [specified in some Asiatic Almas tracks].

Texas Bigfoot Cast Compared To Neanderthal Foot Skeleton. Next one Compares Baby Bigfoot Track to Adult. Footprint casts are from David Claerr and the adult track below has been mirrored but is to scale. Both comparisons are paste-ups done by Dale D.

Flathead Lake "Nessie" UPDATE

After a prolonged absence of Flathead Nessie sightings, the
lake’s elusive monster may be out there after all. That’s what Pam Moriarty, her
daughter Laura Barthrop and Justin Lagemann are wondering after the trio viewed
a strange object swimming against the current about 7:30 p.m., Saturday, May
12.

From the picture windows in Pam cliff top home on the northwest end of Finley Point, they watched for about five minutes as it swam northeasterly away from
shore toward the main part of the lake. They were so surprised that Pam briefly
forgot her camera was nearby. She rushed to retrieve it and managed to snap a
picture, but it was too far away to identify.

Lagemann estimated the
object was about 40 or 50 yards off shore when they first noticed it. They
watched through binoculars and afterward he sketched how it appeared to him. He
thought the critter was at least 25 feet long. The head was not showing as it
moved away, but it had a “whale-like tail” and “spiked dorsal
fins.”

Lagemann had lived in Florida and had seen many types of unusual
aquatic animals – manta rays, alligators, crocodiles and more. He couldn’t tell
what this was though. - leaderadvertiser

-A sturgeon could well be described as having a row of spiked scutes sticking up along the back and a fishlike tail. Calling it a whale-like tail would be a mistake, but not a mistake that most witnesses would know any better about.

White Sturgeon illustration, note overall sharklike appearance. Original article was drawing attention to the scutes along the spine and highlighting them in blue.Recently some authors have been wondering if the Lake Iliamna creature could not actually BE a shark, as in this widely-circulated news article reprinted below.

Scientist wonders if Nessie-like monster in Alaska lake is a sleeper shark

For years, legendary tales from Scotland and Western Alaska described large animals or monsters thought to live in Loch Ness and Lake Iliamna. But evidence has been mounting that the Loch Ness and Lake Iliamna monsters may, in fact, be sleeper sharks.

Two exceptionally large Arctic sharks ply northern waters -- Greenland sharks and the Pacific sleeper sharks. During the last few years, scientists have documented Greenland sharks using the St. Lawrence Seaway, lending further credence to the hypothesis that some sharks can survive in freshwater. Bull sharks are also known to swim in fresh water, but this species needs warmer waters.

The idea of sharks possibly using Loch Ness is not new; that's long been one of the hypotheses explaining the Loch Ness Monster. But until now, nobody has suggested sleeper sharks, perhaps because they're secretive and so rarely seen.

20-foot sharks

Sleeper sharks can exceed 20 feet and weigh upwards of 4 tons. Sleeper sharks probably use rivers and lakes to find food, and there is an abundance of salmon and other fish in Loch Ness and Lake Iliamna.

Sightings are often consistent with descriptions of sleeper sharks in that the monsters' shape and colors usually match that of sleeper sharks. Salmon and lots of other prey species have been found in sleeper sharks' stomachs.

As much as we know about sleeper sharks, there are still plenty of unknowns:

How long can sleeper sharks cope with freshwater? Can they spend months in rivers and lakes?

Do they ever over-winter in freshwater?

What is the timing of their movements in and out of freshwater?

While most sighting descriptions are intriguing, in Lake Iliamna the "monsters" have reportedly been seen in the shallow waters near shore. But hard data is a necessity. Late this summer, I plan to lead a field expedition hoping to capture sleeper sharks in Lake Iliamna, attaching satellite tags to track their movements.
How exactly? Years ago when working in Prince William Sound, we spent the night in one of the bays on board our research vessel. One evening I tossed some fish scraps into a crab pot and lowered the pot to the bottom along with an underwater camera. Several fish visited --black cod, a skate and a sleeper shark.
I plan to try the same technique in Lake Iliamna to catch a shark on video. In addition, I will set some baited circle hooks to catch a shark for photographing, tagging and release.
The third technique I'm investigating is to use a camera device that is baited, dropped to the bottom and takes photos when approached. It later returns to the surface for collection by the scientists.
A subsequent expedition is planned for late summer 2013 to Lock Ness to repeat the exercise on Nessie.

Harbingers of Climate Change

Sleeper sharks are proving themselves very adaptable, so much so that they may become the Arctic's dominant large predator. Global warming is reducing Arctic Ocean ice and critical refuge habitat for ice seals and polar bears. Without ice to haul out on, seals and polar bears may be exposed to predation by these large sharks. In the waters near Tromsø, Norway, Greenland sharks were suspected of killing large numbers of harbor seals. In the stomach of a Greenland shark captured in the North Sea, researchers found the jawbone of a young polar bear. Harbor seals have been reported in stomachs of Pacific sleeper sharks.
In fact, nearly every marine species in the Arctic has been found in the stomachs of these sharks, which makes sleepers a unique predator. Scientists who examined a dozen Greenland sharks from Iceland found that six sharks contained remnants of marine mammals, accounting for a quarter of the total mass of stomach contents and, perhaps, a majority of the energy ingested based on the energy content of marine-mammal blubber.
Greenland sharks have been caught in large numbers in eastern Canada and western Greenland. One researcher estimated that 50,000 individual sharks were caught per year in the Baffin Bay region in the 1940s.From my research, I would offer one precaution: Don't underestimate the predatory skills of sleeper sharks.

No doubt, sleeper sharks can be easy to underestimate. Fishermen and scientists have described them as sluggish and distinctly unpredatory-like over the years -- based, in part, on how they appear when brought to the surface on a long line or in a trawl. But sleeper sharks have been detected attacking live and active prey such as Pacific halibut and salmon. One sleeper shark captured on an International Pacific Halibut Commission research charter contained six whole adult chum salmon. Each weighed more than 4 pounds and were so fresh and bright they could have been cooked for dinner. Fresh whale tissue is also common in sleeper shark stomachs.
Understanding the role of Greenland and Pacific sleeper sharks on marine ecosystems is critical for managing northern oceans. If they turn out to be the culprits described as monsters in Loch Ness and Lake Iliamna, their somewhat ho-hum reputation based, in part, on their uninspiring name may be due for an update.

--And the answer is, why are sleeper sharks even considered as candidates when their freshwater tolerance is in question and that seems to be a pivotal point in such cases? Why are we to eliminate sturgeons as candidates in favour of the sharks when the sturgeons are at least as good as candidates? Sturgeons grow every bit as large as the figures quoted for the sleeper sharks in the article, are known to live in freshwater for long periods, inhabit the approximate geographical region in question and are known to have a sharklike overall configuration, including the fins (see the illustration added at start of this article) Indeed, the only reason researchers are thinking in terms of sharks at all is because some researchers, such as Loren Coleman in A Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents [etc, 2003] seem to be genuinely unaware of what a sturgeon even looks like.

Lake Iliamna Monster, Alaska

The Iliamna Lake Monster, or commonly referred to by locals as Illie, is a cryptid whose legend has haunted the Alaskan fishing village of Iliamna. The native’s tales describe a large beast that roams the waters. The monster has many reported sightings along with a few reported causes of death under the its belt. Over the years, it has gained enough attention to lure the Animal Planet show “River Monsters” in attempt to find out what may lie beneath the waters. The monster is a reported 10–30 feet in length with a blunt-snouted [and allegedly armoured] head that is used to place blunt force unto things such as small boats. Although there is no physical evidence to conclude the monster's existence, many reports beg to differ.

History
Stories of the lake monster have been around since the indigenous Aleut people lived on the lake and fished as a source of food. The monster was not brought to the public eye until the 40’s, when pilots started to report seeing large fish from their planes while flying overhead.[1] This sparked interest in others as pilots and fishermen began to wonder what the creatures were. Many more sightings were reported as people began to fly low over the lake for the purpose of seeing these monster fish. Consistent reports of large, dull, aluminum-colored fish were coming in by the late 50’s. Soon, enough attention was brought to the subject that in 1979 the Anchorage Daily News offered a sum of $100,000 to anyone who could provide conclusive evidence proving the fish’s existence.[2] The evidence is yet to be provided, as sightings have slowed in recent years.

Sightings

1942: Babe Alyesworth and Bill Hammersley reported seeing a large, dull, aluminum-colored fish from their plane. This encouraged others to come forth with sightings and more information[3]..
1963: Biologist reported seeing a 25–30 foot fish from overhead; it did not come up for air[4]..
1977: A pilot, while flying over Pedro Bay, spots a 12–14 foot fish on the surface as it dove down, revealing vertical tail[5]..
1987: Resident Verna Kolyaha reported seeing a large black fish with white stripe down its fin.
1988: Several locals report the same sighting from water and land, a large black fish with a fin swimming near the surface[6]..
These are just a few of the sightings that have occurred since the outbreak in the 40’s and 50’s. Most of the sightings in recent times take place near Pedro Bay and the fishing village of Iliamna, like the events of 1977 and 1988. With the lack of recent sightings, many have begun to disprove of the monster's existence although TV networks such as the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet have managed to feature the monster on episodes of popular series.

What it might be

Many theories have been proposed to explain what might lie beneath the waters of Lake Iliamna. Ogopogo is a cryptid very similar to that of the Loch Ness Monster which supposedly resides in the waters of Lake Okanogan in British Columbia. Some disagree with this theory based upon reports of what the monster looks like due to Ogopogo’s serpent-like features. Another theory that has gained attention due to the increasingly popular Animal Planet show “River Monsters” biologist Jeremy Wade determined that the monster may be no monster at all, but a white sturgeon which is indigenous to areas of Alaska.[7] The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission says, “White sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North America and can weigh over 1,500 pounds, be 20 feet in length, and live for over 100 years.”[8] The sturgeon, being a bottom dwelling fish, would explain why sightings are rare. Additionally, catching them is considered a tough sport by many fishermen. Both of these ideas validate the theory. Although the white sturgeon is found in Alaska and much of the Pacific Northwest, there is no evidence of the white sturgeon residing in Lake Iliamna. Some see this as disproving Jeremy Wade’s theory.[On the other hand, sturgeon have been reported caught at Lake Okanagon and Flathead lake, two locations where the Sturgeon identity for the Lake Monsters has also been strongly insisted upon. The Sturgeon are ofen living on the bottom and easily overlooked, even large ones-DD]

Other Crypids

Large bodies of water, especially lakes, have always attracted attention due to their mystery. Throughout history, there have been countless stories and reports of monsters lurking in the depths of the lakes and seas. Ogopogo, as discussed earlier, is a legend whose tales predate that of the popular Loch Ness Monster. Bigfoot and the Yeti are two of the popular names for a hairy, ape-like beast. Legends of crypids span across the world. New discoveries of species are made all the time and people continue to wonder what else may be yet undiscovered.

Lake monster not the only mystery in Alaska's Lake Iliamna

Alex DeMarban | May 23, 2012

Add this question to the many mysteries of Iliamna Lake: Where the heck do its unique, freshwater harbor seals go when the lake and rivers freeze shut?
Dave Withrow, a federal research biologist who has flown numerous aerial surveys to count them, has spotted close to 300 of the seals in late summer.
In deep winter when there are no openings in the ice, he's counted as many as 73. During other such times, he's found none. Locals from nearby villages say the seals live there year-round, and based on what he's seen, he believes them.
Which begs the question: "How can 280 seals just disappear?"
Maybe the seals have a hidden cave where they winter, he once joked with colleagues. Then an elder told him just such an underground cave existed, providing freshwater access for the seals year-round, a legend that gets a mention in a recent article by a state Fish and Game biologist.
"We were just totally joking, but to hear an elder say that was like, 'Really? I don't believe it,'" Withrow said.
Welcome to Alaska's deepest and most massive lake, some 200 miles southwest of Anchorage across Cook Inlet.
The seals, hunted by Alaska Native villagers from communities like Kokhanok on the lake's southern shores, are fatter than seagoing harbor seals, and have thicker fur. The hunting was first documented by a Russian explorer in 1819, according to the article.
The animals are just one of two such harbor-seal populations in the world, and Withrow hopes to determine if they're a genetically distinct stock. But they're just one of the lake's mysteries. There's also the strange white beast that's said to occasionally ripple the surface, a la the Loch Ness Monster.

[Dave Withrow seems not to be aware that seals commonly live under the ice all winter long and make do by creating breathing holes in the ice. Polar Bears and Northern Natives commonly hunt the seals by waiting at the breathing holes when the ice is thick-DD]

An Alaska scientist thinks the "Iliamna Lake Monster," as some locals call it, might be sleeper sharks that spend much of their time dwelling on the bottom of the lake, occasionally rising to the surface to feed.
Bruce Wright, the scientist who led the Exxon Valdez restoration effort for the federal government, hopes to catch a sleeper shark this summer after capturing them on video with a waterproof camera lowered in a cage.
But, in a lake covering 1,600 square miles and 1,000 feet deep, he has to narrow down the search. To learn where the sharks might lurk, he's trying to figure out what they eat. Maybe they feast on huge runs of red salmon that surge 75 miles up the Kvichak River after leaving Bristol Bay. Maybe they chomp on the seals, ripping out their midsections with a form of night vision that senses electromagnetic fields when animals move.
Legend also has it that the bottom reaches of the lake are filled with saltwater where the sharks can dwell year-round, and that maybe there's some sort of connection to Cook Inlet. It sounds like something out of McElligot's Pool in the Dr. Seuss classic of the same name. Anything's possible in McElligot's Pool, and who knows, maybe it's the same for Iliamna Lake. At any rate, Wright plans to check out the saltwater theory, too, lowering a meter that can detect salinity.
Withrow isn't convinced of the sleeper shark theory, though he admits he can't disprove it either
He's conducted about six aerial surveys per year since 2007, and he's never seen a sleeper shark from the air in the lake. Growing more than 20 feet long, they'd be visible in the lake's clear water. But that doesn't mean they're not there. Maybe they don't bother with the seals because there's enough fish to keep them full.
Withrow believes it's more likely the baffling creature is a sturgeon, a prehistoric fish with a long snout. They grow several feet long and are known for swimming up rivers and into lakes, a feat that in the shallow Kvichak River would be tough for a sleeper shark.
Or, maybe the sturgeon, or some other beast, has been there since the last Ice Age, waiting to be discovered, he said.
The sturgeon concept jibes with what Chad Anelon of Iliamna, a village on the lake's north shore, has always heard. He's never seen the lake monster, but he's talked with others who have.They say "it looks like a sturgeon," he said. [Emphasis added-DD]
As for the lake's seals, Withrow expects to study them in greater detail soon. He works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but it's been a long process getting permits from the agency even to collect bits of samples from Native hunters, who enjoy an exemption for hunting those seals and other animals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. When those permits come through, as they soon should, Withrow also hopes to radio-tag the seals to track their routes. Then he just might learn their winter whereabouts.

This is directly from Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum and there is a PDF version of the document as well

Although many news sources make this out to be a study of "Yeti" DNA samples, it is clear from the wording that samples from ALL "ABSMS" (in Ivan Sanderson's sense), which would include more apelike types, more humanlike types, and the ones that are supposedly intermediate.

Subsequently Dr Meldrum has come out with the update posted on his Facebook wall:

Below is one of four video
excerpts from the Dr. Jeff Meldrum's presentation at Thom Cantrall's Pacific
Northwest Conference on Primal People (Sasquatch). (You can view Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)

Richland WA PNW Bigfoot Conference 2012: Dr. Jeff
Meldrum Part 1

In the first video, Dr. Jeff Meldrum discusses his new publication the Relict Hominoid Inquiry.
According to the Relict Homoid Inquiry website:

The objective of the RHI is to promote research and
provide a refereed venue for the dissemination of scholarly peer-reviewed papers
exploring and evaluating the possible existence and nature of relict hominoid
species around the world.

An interesting point made by Dr. Meldrum is how the
hairy-man myth is widespread but not universal. An important distinction. If the
hairy-man was universal, it could be written off as a projection of human
experience. This reminds us of the Jungian
Archetypes, that Carl Jung suggests that are innate in our DNA. Dr. Meldrum
is suggests these are not archetypes, these are not manifestations of the human
psyche.

Linnæus knew nothing, of his own observation, of the man-like
Apes of either Africa or Asia, but a dissertation by his pupil Hoppius in the
"Amœnitates Academicæ" (VI. "Anthropomorpha") may be regarded as embodying his
views respecting these animals.

From the Wikipedia,

The dissertation is illustrated by a plate, of which the
accompanying woodcut, Fig, 6, is a reduced copy, The figures are entitled (from
left to right 1. Troglodyta Bontii; 2. Lucifer Aldrovandi; 3.
Satyrus Tulpii; 4. Pygmæus Edwardi. The first is a bad copy of
Bontius' fictitious "Ourang-outang," in whose existence, however, Linnæus
appears to have fully believed; for in the standard edition of the "Systema
Naturæ," it is enumerated as a second species of Homo; "H. nocturnus."
Lucifer Aldrovandi is a copy of a figure in Aldrovandus, "De
Quadrupedibus digitatis viviparis," Lib. 2, p. 249 (1645) entitled
"Cercopithecus formæ raræ Barbilius vocatus et originem a china ducebat."
Hoppius [18] is of opinion that this may be one of that cat-tailed people, of
whom Nicolaus Köping affirms that they eat a boat's crew, "gubernator navis" and
all! In the "Systema Naturæ" Linnaeus calls it in a note, Homo
caudatus,and seems inclined to regard it as a third species of man.
According to Temminck, Satyrus Tulpii is a copy of the figure of a
Chimpanzee published by Scotin in 1738, which I have not seen. It is the
Satyrus indicus of the "Systema Naturæ," and is regarded by Linnæus as
possibly a distinct species from Satyrus sylvestris. The last, named
Pygmæus Edwardi, is copied from the figure of a young "Man of the Woods,"
or true Orang-Utan, given in Edwards' "Gleanings of Natural History" (1758).

Bontius (see Bibl. 26, p. 84) gives one of the earliest accounts of the ourang-
outang, which name he says the Javanese give it because it is a man of the woods,
Homo sylvestris. He says that the Javanese assert that it arises from the lust of the
Indian women, who mix with the apes — a tale he does not appear to credit. He
desci'ibes the rather human characteristics of the female, and figures her as a sort of
hairy woman, not much resembling our idea of the ourang-outang. He identifies this
Homo sylvestris or ourang-outang with Pliny's Satyr [Nat. Hist. Lib. vii. cap. 2).
There is nothing about pigmentation or sight, but the whole tale, without apparently
the least hesitation, was afterwards transferred to the albino (including the legend of
being the hybrid of man and ape !). Bontius is not responsible. He gives a bad cut
of an aboriginal or a beast he had probably never seen close at hand (see our Plate r/) ;
It remained for Linnaeus to identify this ourang-outang and the albino !

From Helmut Loofs-Wissowa:

Research in unidentified
hominoids in Southeast Asia can be said to have begun in the 17th century
with the works of Jakob de Bondt, alias "Bontius," a Dutch physician
in Batavia (now Jakarta). But from then on, what happened in this field
of research in Southeast Asia had its repercussions throughout the world
to this day. To begin with, this research started here not with a whisper
but with a bang: a monumental misunderstanding regarding the name Orangutan (Malay for "Man of the woods"- or "Forestman") which
is still with us and which it is about time to rectify once and for all.

Bontius came to Java
in 1625 and stayed there until his death in 1631. During this time he
wrote the pioneering work Historiae naturalis et medicae Indiae orientalis,
published only in 1658 in Amsterdam. In it, he mentions anthropomorphic
hairy creatures in Java, which, although not being humans, looked and
behaved like them in all respects, except that they had no language, and
to which he gave the name Ourang Outang or Homo silvestris (later
sylvestris). It is now generally believed, even by the most prominent
Western scholars, that this was of course the first reference to the ape
orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus). But this cannot be so for a number
of reasons.Bontius who himself
saw several of these creatures of both sexes, only says that they were
walking erect: utterly uncharacteristic for the mainly arboreal ape
orang-utan that behaves awkwardly on the ground and rarely stands
up at all. Furthermore, Bontius also refers back to Pliny the Elder who
noted that there were, in the eastern regions of India, "Satyrs" who could run so fast that only the old and sick could be captured, and
goes on to say how privileged he felt for having seen such creatures himself
(although we do not know whether he had actually seen them running). However,
the ability to run very fast is an attribute observed in many unidentified
hominids, from the relic Neanderthal Enkidu in the Sumerian Gilgamesh
epos who ran along with wild animals, to apemen in the Vietnamese Highlands
chased without much success by the villagers; it is definitely not an
attribute of the ape orangutan.From two other contemporary
Dutch travelers we have more information about the creatures Bontius described,
confirming that they cannot be orang-utans. Thus we read that they communicate
by "twittering" which is the precise word used independently
by several informants describing wildmen in Indochina and the Caucasus;
the noise orang-utans make has never been likened to the twitter of birds!
We also read that the Javanese used to kill these apemen because they
stole everything they possibly could overnight in their villages; this
too, corresponds to the many reports by American soldiers in Vietnam of
"gorillas" raiding their camps and is utterly unlike the behavior
of orang-utans. Moreover, it is said that sometimes, instead of being
killed, these hairy creatures were captured by the Javanese villagers
and made to perform some manual domestic tasks such as fetching water; an orang-utan cannot do this. And finally, the arms of these
apemen were said to descend to their knees; those of orang-utans are
much longer.But there is still
the controversial matter of the drawing of such a female Homo sylvestris
Bontius published with his report and which is generally taken to "obviously" be that of a very hairy sapiens woman because of
her human limb proportions and her human vulva. Therefore, it is argued,
Bontius cannot be trusted. It seems to me, however, that it was rather
the draftsman who could not be trusted to have faithfully drawn, true
to nature, a creature the nature of which he was not familiar with. To
accuse Bontius of such a pointless misconstruction or even a deliberate
attempt to trick his readers seems somewhat hasty. Incidentally, how do
we know what the vulva of a Wild-woman really looks like? In any case,
we may conclude that the good doctor's hairy bipedal creatures can definitely
not have been orang-utans.An early 18th century
account from Borneo also strongly supports the conviction that creatures
locally referred to as Forestmen cannot be the ape orang-utan.
The first Englishman to write about Dutch Borneo, Captain Daniel Beeckman,
notes in his A Voyage to and from the Island of Borneo (1718): "The Monkeys, Apes, and Baboons are of many different Sorts and Shapes;
but the most remarkable are those they call "Oranootans," which
in their Language signifies Men of the Woods: these grow up to
be six foot high; they walk upright, have longer arms than man, tolerably
good faces (handsomer I am sure than some Hottentots that I have seen),
large teeth, no tails nor hair, but on those parts where it grows on humane
bodies; they are nimble footed and mighty strong; they throw great stones,
sticks, and billets at those persons that offend them." I wonder
how any primatologist could really identify this tall, bipedal, nimble-footed
almost glamorous"handsome" creature with a crouching longhaired
hideous orang-utan. Nothing fits. This simply had to be the description
of a Wildman.Consequently, it was
mainly on the strength of Bontius' report that the great Linnaeus (1707-1778),
bold inventor of the order of Primates, made room in his Systema naturae
for a separate human genus Troglodytes in which Homo sylvestris
orang outang had pride of place. Thus, by the middle of the 18th
century the existence of at least one more species of man next to Homo
sapiens was generally accepted; he had found his legitimate place in Nature's
complicated but nevertheless logical system and in particular in that
of the primates. At the end of the chapter dealing with the classification
of humans and apes in the 12th edition of his Systema, the last in his
lifetime, Linnaeus wrote prophetically "what else has been revealed
must be explained by theologians".Sure enough, one of
his disciples, the strongly Protestant Swabian medical professor Johann
Friedrich Gmelin (1748-1804) who supervised the 13th edition of Systema
naturae in 1789, took it upon himself to correct Linnaeus' views concerning
humans which he thought were blasphemous and against the teaching of the
Church, by simply eliminating any reference to men other than Homo sapiens
from the Systema. God, Gmelin argued, created Man in His own image and
this man could only have been Homo sapiens as God could not possibly look
like an apeman; makes sense, does it not? A truly paradoxical situation
developed therefore whereby the name Orang outang which was coined to
scientifically designate a human being other than Homo sapiens, but which
has always been applied by Malay speakers to various perfectly sapiens
forest dwellers such as the Siamang or the Sakai, has become in the West
that of the red-haired ape which at home is called by names not including
the "man" component, such as mawa, maia or mias.The unfortunate result
of this development was that in Western science the quest for Forest Man
was abandoned as useless and whenever there were rumors about such beings
in Southeast Asia it was automatically assumed that they must refer to
the incorrectly named ape orang-utan![Below, Alika Lindbergh's illustration of the Surviving Neanderthal man from Loofs-Wissow's article, taken from Heuvelman's book about the Minnesota Iceman]

Although Bontius localized the "Wildmen of the Woods" in Indonesia, in the 1600s it would have been recognised as identical to the Wildmen (Homo sylvestris) still being commonly seen, reported and illustrated in Europe: also being called "Cavemen" and "Apemen" even then.

An array of Wildmen illustrations. Upper Left, the "King of the Wildmen" as illustrated on a pack of playing cards from the 1600s. Upper Right, A more recent illustration of the traditional Wildman from a Fantasy context. Lower Left, a report of one of the "Forest People" of Vietnam, one of the sort that Loofs-Wissowa was talking about and was identifying as Bontius' "Ourang-outangs" and as Ivan Sanderson's Hairy Malaysian Submen. And at bottom right, reconstruction of the Wildman as a Living Neanderthal, Identical to the Iceman examined by Sanderson and Heuvelmans, which was Loofs-Wissowa's identification for the Wildmen in question.

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